Little Builders
by TheBlueJetpack
Summary: 3. Lisa is struggling to get her experiment to work, but Lily wants her older sister to play with her. Lisa reluctantly agrees and, along the way, discovers some truly amazing things that science could never open her up to.


_A/N: I'm back! And I'll be giving Luna and Luan a break to present you with a brand-new story focusing on some other characters…time to pick on somebody else! Honestly, Lisa has started to grow on me, so I guess I'll have to give her the spotlight. I initially thought that writing her complex dialogue would be a difficult task, but it's actually surprisingly fun!_

_The last 2 stories I wrote follow Luna and Luan as they come to learn the depths of what their relationship with each other truly means, and while this story does not have anything to do with them, it does end up falling in the same timeline, for I saw some potential from those stories to exploit in this one. Nothing major, but perhaps reading 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Warm Hearts' would be worthwhile before pouring into 'Little Builders'._

_The final week of Season 3 is on the horizon; this is it! The last episodes! Included in the final episode line-up are Racing Hearts and Stage Plight, and one thing is clear: the hype for each of these 2 episodes are WAY higher than that of the actual finale Cooked! and honestly any episode that has ever aired prior, and for obvious reasons. Someone up in the big office must have realized that there was a much larger audience for the romance-based episodes and said, "Hmmm."_

_I hope you enjoy 'Little Builders' as much as I had fun writing it. Let me know what you think. _

_And now, our freakin' presentation!_

* * *

Little Builders

February 13, 2019 - February 25, 2019

On a clear afternoon during the peak of spring, when the sky is blue and there's just enough breeze to blow the clouds away, you can stand outside the infamous Loud House in Royal Woods, Michigan and listen to the familiar sounds of chaos erupting from within. Noises and disturbances ranging from female voices yelling to chemical explosions, or rock-and-roll jam-sessions to basketball shooting were quite typical to be heard on an average Saturday when the residents were free to do as they pleased. Everyone knows that these are simply the sounds that say that life in the Loud House is as healthy as can possibly be. Some days are louder than others. Others are strangely quiet. But whatever the noise level, there was one big happy family living inside.

On this particular Saturday, the level of sound emitted from the Loud property was relatively moderate. Sunny days had a tendency to bring most of the kids outside to enjoy the warmer weather and they naturally took their activities with them. Lola Loud, Queen of Royal Woods if you please, was strutting around the front yard practicing her famous waves and careful pageant steps. Her twin was living in her own opposite dimension, crawling around in the dirt and collecting interesting bugs to keep as pets. One could only wonder in awe how Lola and Lana, polar opposites of a magnet, could even live within the same room as each other, what with even a single smudge of dirt making any form of contact with Lola's tiaras, gowns, or shoes would earn a one-way ticket to certain tribulation. But a magnet, despite sporting its different ends, was connected all the same by one body. Much like a magnet, the twins had an inner connection rooted deep within the other, compelling the girls to stick together as if those magnetic heads could somehow reach and grasp firmly in place with each other. They did not repel, they attracted. Despite their obvious differences, the twins maintained a firm bond with one another, even if that bond tended to become volatile and hostile at times.

Not everyone jumped at the chance to enjoy the outdoors when weather permitted it. Lisa Loud preferred to stay in her 'laboratory', engaging in her research and studies that were only decipherable to a mind as great as her own. Sometimes she would take advantage of the outside environment to perform field research or perhaps a chemical experiment that required suitable ventilation. Today however, with the house being relatively quiet, it was the optimum time to work indoors and enter her mode of deep concentration. It was the only thing suitable for a four year-old child after all. Too bad no one other than herself seemed to understand this.

Lisa knew that much of the reason for the house's increased solitude today was owed to the fact that her third and fourth eldest sisters were absent and would not be returning for the next few hours, as the pair had departed to see a movie at the local theatre, and were planning on mingling downtown together. Over the last few months, Lisa had noted that Luna and Luan had been spending a greater deal of time together than they normally did, and though it had never been explicitly stated out loud, one could trust clever little Lisa to easily deduce the reason why on her own. In the previous summer, Luna's temporary leave from their humble abode to her trivial musical excursion in the next state had left Luan in a state of deep depression and loneliness. It had been clear from Luan's body language throughout the days following Luna's departure that the young adolescent had been yearning for her immediate elder sister at a degree Lisa had never thought was possible for a human being. While this had been clear to Lisa, the others had seemed quite oblivious to Luan's morose demeanor. Her theory had only been further confirmed upon Luna's return a month later, which had had an immediate reaction on Luan. Ever since then, her two elder sister units had engaged in many social-bonding activities together (street-name: 'hung out') at a more frequent level than they usually did. And while she was quite happy that Luna and Luan were enjoying their time spent together, she was far happier that they had left for the day, leaving the house considerably quiet and allowing her to work in peace.

Stationed in the shared bedroom of herself and her younger sister unit Lily, her lab bench was crowded with messy collections of beakers, test tubes, university textbooks, and all kinds of gizmos and gadgets of her own design. Lining the shelf on the wall next to various medals and certificates were chemicals and reagents appropriate only for the stock cabinets of a professional laboratory. Her closet contained even more impressive items, not to mention what were concealed inside the numerous secret compartments that were carefully hidden around the house. And all of this was owned by Lisa Marie Loud. It would be an understatement to say that she was a gifted little girl. She was an intellectual mastermind in a child's body. The youngest prodigy to ever set foot in the world. The 8th Natural Wonder.

A weirdo?

The girl was only four years-old, and had the ability to build a military-worthy mini-tank for herself and owned a considerably lethal array of firearms and master defense systems. She had successfully proven and tested the theory of time travel, had access to the resources necessary to dabble with nuclear fusion, and was currently developing a cure for the H1N1 virus. Was this girl made for success since the day she was born? Probably. No one in the family could really be sure how she could pull any of this off, but no one really questioned it either. For the most part, Lisa's inventions and vast knowledge of basically everything helped the family along the bumpy road of living in a crowded, chaotic household. Colour-coded refrigerator, elite burglar detection systems, a superior ability to work in any unit of measurement, and multi-subject tutoring skills had come to the family's needs when needed most.

Of course, there were the strange inventions that they would rather live without and forget about all together…but that's another story.

Today, Lisa was attempting to prepare a necessary buffer solution she would require before proceeding further with her latest experiment. Buffers are important liquids used widely in the science world, because they are designed to resist major changes in pH upon dilution better than strong acids and bases. The buffer itself must be prepared with a certain pH level, lest it be unsuitable for the experiment. The problem, however, was just that; the pH of her concoction was not falling within the acceptable range. Even worse than that was the fact that she couldn't figure out exactly what error she had made.

"I do not understand," grumbled Lisa. "I've added the correct amount of potassium chloride and disodium phosphate. There should be no logical reason as to why the pH is not 7.0 _exactly_." Lisa read her pH meter again; it was currently sitting next to her bottle of buffer with its wired electrode gripped carefully in her little hand and half-submerged in the clear liquid. Lisa huffed as she stared at the reading on the digital display screen: a pH of 5.8...far too acidic and far below what the buffer required.

She was becoming very fed up after her numerous attempts at hitting the correct pH, and she hoped that her frustration would only push her forward to improve her handiwork as it normally did. This time however, it only seemed to slow her down. Things were not looking so good for Lisa. She began ranting to herself as she stared at the 1-litre bottle containing not just her failed buffer, but also her problems.

"Great. I am granted a rare duration of solitude, and none of my experiments can proceed! I suppose I could reattempt from step 1…for the fourth time…". She removed her thick glasses and rubbed her face feeling a disturbing combination of frustration and exhaustion. "Without this buffer, there is no possibility of continuing with the procedure. There are no alternate pathways…what could I have done to have made such a disgraceful error?!"

She groaned loudly and dropped her forehead upon the desk, producing a comical sound not unlike '_thud_'.

"Get off," said the desk.

Lisa was certainly never one to give up. Failure to complete a task, especially one regarding her scientific work directly, would only mean a failure of herself and her abilities. But today was just testing, almost teasing, her patience. She removed the electrode and folded her arms, pouting angrily at her lab notes, which were more than a scattered heap of papers lying all over the desk space. Peering into the bottles of dry ingredients, powders, and reagents that she had laid out, she mentally noted that she was running low on some specific stocks. Goodness knows when would be the next time her father would purchase these substances for her again. It was always a difficult task to convince her parental units to order such chemicals that were so foreign to them and apparently atypical for a human of her age to own. Sometimes, for specific projects, her correspondents from the local and international universities would provide her with the necessary ingredients and materials, shipping them to confidential locations that she would later smuggle unnoticed into the house. For minor experiments like this that were of little interest to her colleagues, however, it would not be so easy to acquire the goods. As Lisa was mulling over her troubles, a familiar voice reached out to her.

"Sa Sa!"

The young genius stopped sulking long enough to twist her head around and look at her baby sister Lily, who was standing in her crib, looking at Lisa intently. Though she desperately wanted to continue with her work, it was a well-known routine for Lisa to let Lily out of the crib after her nap was done, so she decided that she could spare a few seconds to perform that task. Such few seconds would only let on minimal damage to her concentration. Besides, she wasn't making much progress anyways. She directed a small smile at her younger companion. "Greetings, youngest sibling. I see you have completed your afternoon REM cycle. Street name: nap." Lisa hopped off her stool and dragged it over to the crib. Unlatching and lowering the plastic gate, she hopped off the stool and carefully lifted Lily out and onto the floor. These maneuvers did offer her a little bit of relief, as they changed her scenery after staring at her desk all day, but she was determined to return to working right away. She began to drag the stool back.

"Now run along and entertain your infant mind, dear sister unit." She expected Lily to crawl out of the room to find another of her older sisters, one who would be more willing make time to play with her, as usual. This time however, Lily waddled over to her wooden building blocks which were near the centre of the room. She looked up at Lisa again, who had pushed her stool back into place and had just sat down to resume work.

"Sa Sa!"

Noticing that Lily had not left their bedroom, the scientist looked down at her and frowned. The baby was giving her a certain look that she had seen numerous times before. Lily wanted something and Lisa had boarded with her long enough to know exactly what that was. The four year-old turned back towards her desk, but still addressed the infant.

"I am sorry Lily, but I cannot afford time to engage in 'play' with you right now, as I am far too busy with my work. This improperly-made buffer must be corrected if I am to proceed with my experiment. Perhaps Lincoln has amble time at the moment."

Lily blew a loud raspberry in response. Lisa sighed as she stared at the almost-empty bottles of KCl and Na2HPO4. Just as she knew Lily wanted her to play with her, she knew she would not get any peace if she didn't. Her light-speed calculating mind quickly told her that the only solution was to simply succumb to Lily's desires, if only for a few minutes.

"Very well, then," she sighed. "I suppose I can spare a break from my studies to humour you in your pursuits." Lily giggled happily as she watched her older sister hop down from the stool to approach her and sit down on the carpeted floor directly across from her with the pile of blocks separating them in between. Lisa let Lily arrange a few blocks as a base for the flimsy little tower she would construct before she herself picked up a block and added it to the pile. Seeing as Lily had developed an apparent liking for building things, Lisa had once tried to teach her younger sister how to build models of molecules with her favourite molecular kit, but was forced to give this up quickly after Lily started to chew on the sphere-shaped atoms, which for all in the world, looked like giant pieces of candy. The multi-coloured, multi-shaped, chunky wooden blocks that she was currently playing with proved to be more suitable for someone as underdeveloped as Lily. A quick scan of the childish toys told Lisa that the breakdown of the cluster was 75% brown blocks and 25% coloured. Anyone could see that.

Lisa sighed as she watched her younger sibling unit play happily. Sometimes she wished she could be as care-free as Lily, yet at the same time, successful in completing her goals of utmost importance.

"I often wonder, youngest sibling, why I of all inhabitants of this household would be your choice of companionship for your time of leisure and social engagement," Lisa said to her, though she knew very well that Lily would not completely comprehend her venting. She laid a rectangular block painted green on top of the identically-shaped blue block that Lily had just placed on a layer of brown blocks, the biggest ones of the block pile. "After all, whilst I pride myself in my pursuits, I am unafraid to admit that I am undoubtedly the sibling of least interest to you in comparison to your other, older siblings. I do not possess the ability to sing you a lullaby, nor do I express interest in assembling balloons in the shape of animals, which our sister Luan is somehow able to generate profit from. I fail to see the value in sport and find the idea of engrossing myself in fashionable trends to be severely lacking tasteful merit…street name: boring." She placed a purple cylinder-shaped block near the edge of the tower. "Simultaneously, my studies and vast knowledge gained from my research do not seem to thrust any positive effects upon you, thus I can safely conclude that you do not express interest in my pursuits."

Lily simply babbled at her roommate as she placed a yellow-coloured cylinder block next to Lisa's purple one. Lisa couldn't help but smile a little. The youngest Loud may not have developed the ability to understand her complex speech, but she appeared to be clever enough to get the basic black-and-white of it. Overall, she was just a good listener. Perhaps this was what always made her a worthy recipient to talk to. Lily didn't ask questions or offer rude insults to Lisa's personal problems as her other siblings might have if she tried to talk to them. Many times in the past had found Lisa battling inner stress for various reasons, ranging from dealing with a rambunctious family that couldn't leave her alone to her work for two minutes or the challenges of preparing for multiple seminars and presentations within the same week. Sometimes it seemed like the whole world needed her; there was only so much a four year-old such as herself could handle. More often than not, Lisa would find herself venting before Lily, who, while not seeming to reach the depths of Lisa's struggles, was happy to sit and listen to her older sister talk all the same. Lisa couldn't quite explain why, but she found the infant's presence during her troubled times rather soothing.

"I anticipated today to be most advantageous to my progress. With our resident musician and prankster out of the house, the levels of disturbances on the property have been down by at least 46%. But of course, the universe does not feel the same way. I've made a catastrophic error somewhere in my procedure, Lily. And because of this, I cannot proceed with my chemical experiments." Lisa rolled a red triangular block with her stubby fingers as she became lost in thought. "However, regardless of my own failure, it is still rather nice to have our third and fourth eldest sisters away for a while." Lily looked up at Lisa and frowned. "Poo poo!" she jabbed reproachfully. Lisa rolled her eyes. "No, I did not mean it in that way. To elaborate, I enjoy Luna and Luan's presence, as they are family after all. They have good intentions…even Luan. What I mean is that I simply appreciate the peace and solitude that we are currently experiencing, which would be deemed nonexistent with them around." Lily calmed down at this, seemingly understanding Lisa's clarification.

Throughout her four years of dabbling with research, she still found it difficult to concentrate with the background distractions that were Luna's careless instrument operations or Luan's worthless jokes. The worst ones were the science-related puns that Luan invented just for Lisa. Foolish, immature Luan, who tried to create a joke using scientific terminology, when in reality, she knew just as much about science as Lily knew how to pronounce Lisa's name properly. Lisa liked Luan, but the world of scientific discovery was no laughing matter. Not at all. Besides, there were far more useful and worthwhile things that Luan could be spending her time developing upon instead of dry jokes that lasted for no more than a few seconds. Improving her grades by studying hard instead of coming to Lisa for last-minute cramming was a good place to start.

Lisa certainly did not waste the potential laid out before her. A quick marvel at the certificates and awards displayed on her wall and in the family trophy case was more than enough evidence to prove just that.

Just then, Lily giggled, breaking her from her thoughts. "Oo-na! Oo-na!"

Her older sister nodded at her in response. "Yes, youngest sibling unit, I am aware of your affinity towards our sister Luna. She has, after all, proven to be the close equivalent to a second mother towards you in comparison to our other siblings. Likewise, it is clear that she has a high preference for you. My highly observant nature has noticed this since the day you were born to this world." Lisa picked up another block, this one being orange and positioned next to a black cube-shaped block, aligning their edges perfectly on a stack of generic brown blocks. The tower that was slowly taking form between the two sisters was split in half visually between Lisa's precise alignments of edges and corners, and Lily's sloppy, but structurally-sound arrangement. Lily seemed very pleased with their combined progress, and although this time of 'play' was using up valuable working time, Lisa couldn't help but feel a little proud at her achievement in making Lily happy.

She thought of what she had said about Lily's relationship with Luna just moments ago. It was obvious to everyone that the youngest Loud enjoyed the musician's doting care immensely, yet she didn't seem to have a major bias towards any of her siblings. Lisa recalled the time when each of them, herself included, had attempted to assimilate their interests upon Lily, after Lincoln's attempts had showed promising signs of success. Ultimately, each one of them had failed when it was revealed that Lily's primary interest was nothing more than her blanket. Despite this however, the baby genuinely appeared to enjoy her time with any of her siblings, no matter what activity they engaged her in. She was just happy to spend time with all of them. Even so, Lisa was still certain that Lily would enjoy being her test subject. After all, she hadn't complained or put up a struggle when she strapped her to her operating bench, which was merely the diaper changing table. Perhaps when Lily grew a bit older, they could make a little more progress together.

By this point, their creation had now expanded in several planes, with a tall tower in the middle and some smaller ones surrounding it, along with a few walls of minimal height. As the size of their structures increased, their supply of blocks decreased in direct proportion. Lisa's brilliant mind began to wander further and she subconsciously spoke to Lily again as they continued to build. "As much as Luna displays a particular liking towards you, she equally appears to possess partial favouritism towards Luan…the reason behind this remains much of a mystery to me. After all, she is no exception towards our fourth eldest sister's inconsiderate treatment of deception for one-sided laughter at the recipient's unfortunate expense." Lily stared at Lisa, who huffed impatiently. "Pranks, Lily, the pranks. Those obnoxious, nonsensical, downright irritating pranks. And yet, even after years of this mistreatment, Luna still continues to show unconditional attachment towards Luan at a slightly higher degree than the rest of us. Approximately 25.7% more." Lisa frowned and rubbed her chin. "Hmm, that's actually not that 'slight' now that I think about it. Well, the point is that she prefers Luan the most over the rest of her siblings, and while I have no opinion against that, I do not know as to why she would select Luan as her preferential companion among the family. Otherwise known as: her favourite sibling."

Lisa topped a group of identical brown cubes with a dark blue cylinder, exactly half the size of the taller cylinders, and then picked up one of the three remaining blocks, but she was suddenly so deep in thought that her hand lowered, yet she still maintained her grasp on the triangular block. Lily hadn't noticed this and kept on building; a pink half-cylinder, identical in shape to the blue one Lisa previously inserted, was added as high as she could reach. There were only two blocks left to add and the structure would be complete; one held subconsciously in Lisa's hand, the other lying on the floor awaiting Lily to reach for.

"My initial conclusion to the mystery behind Luna's devotion towards Luan was merely because they have resided within the same room every night for almost a decade. Perhaps the accumulation of increased exposure to one another over the span of many years has allotted them with extra time to socially bond with each other. But upon further reflection…" Lisa trailed off as she recalled a foggy memory from the previous winter. "I do remember a particularly frosty night when the furnace of this crumbling household ceased functioning…I overheard our elder sisters talking to each other…and Luna mentioned something about Luan's importance to her. Something about the fourth eldest sister being her immediate younger sister…and thus initiating the development of Luna's big sister/parental instincts for the first time." Lisa frowned as some pieces to this confusing puzzle were starting to slowly mesh together…

She fiddled absent-mindedly with the light purple block in her hand; it was very small, about three times smaller than the rest of its triangularly-shaped counterparts. But Lisa had forgotten about building as she considered this factor that she had disregarded of importance initially, but was only starting to notice its significance.

The puzzle pieces had always been there, but only now was she starting to figure out how they fit snuggly together.

"Perhaps that is why Luan is so important to her. I suppose that would also explain Lori's particular fondness for Leni…approximately an extra 29.4% that is…and Lana's increased affinity for Lola, standing at 97.9%. But…by logic…if that is the case, then that means _you_ should be of particular importance to me," she said, looking down at Lily. Lily was attempting to place a dark green cube, half the size of the other cubes, on the top of the tower, but was having difficulty reaching the desired spot given how much the tower's height had increased with their progress. She stopped when she saw her older sister looking at her with a troubled expression. "Sa sa?" she asked with concern.

"You _are_ my immediate younger sibling. But I'm afraid I do not feel a significant connection towards you as I should, if I were to use Luna as a model," Lisa stated with a strangely guilty sort of tone. But was that true? Memories began to flood her brain, occupying the thought-capacity that would normally be reserved for the scientific realm. She thought of the time she had invented a kangaroo costume that was specifically designed with a cargo-hold to carry Lily around for the purpose of securing maximum candy flow. And while that had been the primary reason for bringing Lily along, Lisa couldn't deny the fact that she had legitimately enjoyed taking the infant with her, if only a bit. Then there was the time she and Lily had worked together to raise money for the entire family to go on vacation. Their little gig at the Royal Woods Mall had worked splendidly, and both of them had had fun doing it. Finally, Lisa recalled the day when she had eagerly jumped at a genuine chance to escape her family by means of staying at Dr. J's research institute to do her work in peace…

There was no doubt that Lisa was easily the last of her family to be expected to display such frivolous emotions, choosing instead to view them simply as inane mental-barriers taking temporary control over one's cognition and common sense. However, despite enjoying the blissful solitude of the institute immensely, that faithful night had become quite the turning point for the young scientist, one she had never quite been able to shake off. She had come to the startling realization of the values of her hidden emotional attachments with her family after spending just one night away. It was not just the fact that she had learned of just how much she relied on them to perform some very basic tasks, but also of how she had genuinely missed their presence. It was during her time away that she had come to understand just how emotionally connected she was with her family and equally how blind she had been to not notice this. Thanks to the beauty of time-travel, the family ultimately knew nothing about this adventure, but Lisa still retained all her memories and had since then become slightly more appreciative to having her parental and sibling units around in her life. And looking back, it may very well have been little Lily, residing in the same room as her with an unfailing presence of her sweet innocent nature, whom she missed the most.

Lisa sighed and looked down at Lily, who was now sitting beside her, holding the green block in her tiny hand and looking up at her. At some point during Lisa's reflections, her baby sister must have crawled her way around the tower and set herself down next to her. Lily was physically smaller than Lisa, but not by much. Perhaps there was more to this infant than simply the 'youngest sibling'. She was her _only_ younger sibling. The one human being who had granted her the opportunity to play the role of a big sister. Lisa couldn't deny the fact that while surrounding herself with the world of science and discovery, she did possess a subtle obligation to watch over Lily as she grew, and a peculiar sense of sisterly pride to go with it. Throughout all her time spent on her deep analysis of just about everything, she never did take the time to analyze the big-sister instincts that she had developed along the way. Until now.

Then Lisa smiled fondly at Lily. "Well…upon reflection…I suppose I may have a higher emotional attachment to you after all. I may not have taken the time to note down our cumulated duration spent together in social bonding, but now that I have…I realize that you are a one-of-a-kind specimen in my perspective."

There was no way Lily could have understood that. But somehow, with the way that she reached up and placed her empty palm on Lisa's cheek, she must have understood enough. This oddly comforting gesture made Lisa close her eyes. "And simultaneously…if I were to select Luan as a model this time…seeing as how equally connected she is with Luna, I wonder if you are deeply connected to me."

When she was answered with only silence, Lisa sighed. "Oh, look at us. Look at _me._ Imagine if my colleagues at the university were to see me this very moment. Playing with childish toys…confiding with my baby sister…neglecting my work. What in Newton's apple would they think of Lisa Loud then? What would they say?"

Lily tilted her head, keeping her eyes focused on Lisa, whose own eyes remained closed as she rambled on. "I imagine something along the lines of _'Lisa Marie Loud, what is the meaning of this? You are a disgrace to the world of scientific greatness to give in to such childish rituals. You have the potential of becoming our world's next leader…the name 'Lisa Loud' could be our next generation's figurehead and yet you are trifling with wooden building blocks with your infant sibling?_'" Lisa paused, and grimaced, as if she were getting the blow right now. "What do you think, Lily? Would that be deemed an appropriate level of reprimanding?"

"Ee-sa."

Lisa's eyes snapped open. She stared at Lily in shock. "Wh-what did you say?"

"Yee-sa"

She stared at the baby, the gears in her master brain had stopped all together for the first time in her life. It was as if time had stopped and the only mass still functioning was her baby sister smiling up at her. Then Lisa found herself speaking very slowly…encouragingly: "Lisa."

Lily was quiet for a moment; Lisa dared not to make a sound as she watched her closely. Then Lily opened up her mouth and spoke again.

"Lisa."

Everyone, herself included, was relatively certain that Lily's first properly pronounced name would be Lincoln's, as he always devoted extra time to play with his baby sister and the whole family constantly yelled his name whenever his antics inflicted direct trouble upon all of them, which was quite a number of times when one tallied up all the incidents he had caused over the years. The closest Lily had ever gotten to achieving the pronunciation was 'Incoln' so she wasn't that far off. It was either him or her three eldest sisters, as they were all second-mothers to Lily, with Luna ranking top for number of times she had taken this duty. But no one, not even herself, would have foreseen that it would be Lisa of all people to receive the honour of being Lily's first pick of the litter. What colleagues? What universities? What buffer? Nothing mattered anymore; she didn't care what anyone thought. The fact that Lily had just perfectly enunciated her first name out loud and that it was none other than Lisa's own name was just too much for the young prodigy. Her discovery of time travel and close encounters with extraterrestrial beings that she had achieved in her years of research were suddenly rendered insignificant compared to what she had just discovered in a matter of seconds.

Lily suddenly stopped smiling and now looked worried. "Boo-boo?" she asked. Lisa quickly became aware of the salinity-filled secretions that were slowly leaking from her eyes. She removed her glasses and wiped away the tears. "No, Lily, no boo-boo. I just…I feel…" Lisa was sure there was a term for it, but her mental database of vast vocabulary couldn't select one suitable. Never before had her light-speed processing mind reached such a standstill. But apparently, there was no need for her to say anything. Lily giggled and crawled onto the scientist's lap. "Kissy!" she announced before giving her immediate older sister a kiss on the cheek. And it was this action that caused Lisa's psychic dam to finally break as her emotions, so carefully hidden for so much of her life began to surge through. Lisa didn't even try to fight back. She wrapped her little arms around Lily and started to giggle herself. As for Lily, well, she was just happy to spend time with her Sa Sa. Except she wasn't Sa Sa anymore.

She was Lisa.

Lisa pulled back after a few moments and beamed proudly at her little sister, for it was during these brief instances that she finally understood the reason why Luna and Luan had such a tight bond with each other; the same applied to Lori and Leni. Even Lana and Lola. There were no formulas involved and no equations to be solved. The answer was laid out right in front of her at this very moment.

Lily suddenly pointed at Lisa's work desk; the improperly-made buffer was still sitting there. "Goo?"

Her sister looked at the bottle for a moment…the object of such importance to her almost a half-hour ago suddenly seemed so small in comparison to the amazing things that she had discovered in the last few minutes. So she shrugged it off with a smile. "Don't worry about the buffer, Lily. That is quite insignificant at the moment. Let's…let's finish what we started, youngest sibling unit…I mean…my little sister." She pointed at the dark green cube in Lily's other hand, and then held up the tiny block in her own hand, a triangular block adorned with a shade of light purple. She handed it to Lily, then stood and picked her sister up. She lifted her just enough for Lily to place the two blocks at the very top of the tower: dark green cube topped with the light purple triangular block, roof-styled. Lily clapped her hands and laughed with approval, making Lisa chuckle too. They then sat back down side-by-side and admired the completed tower and its surrounding structures. A masterpiece of shape and colour built by the littlest hands. Lily cuddled against Lisa and cooed peacefully; the latter put her arm around her, something she had never done before.

* * *

Lori walked quietly into Lisa and Lily's bedroom with the intention of reading Lily her nightly bedtime story. But to her pleasant surprise, her youngest sister was already asleep, sucking her thumb contently while cuddling her blanket in the safety of the crib. Lori, however, was more surprised at the sight of Lisa, already snoozing away. Usually, the brainiac would stay up late working on her weird studies, no matter how hard Lori and their parents fought her to go to bed and get the sleep that she obviously needed. She was only four after all. Why she decided to hit the sack early, Lori didn't know and wasn't going to find out why. Lisa was safely in bed and sound asleep, and that was all that mattered to her. Just as she was turning to leave, Lori caught sight of an impressive-looking block tower near the middle of the room. Even by the dim light of the hallway streaming into the darkened room, she noticed that it didn't quite seem like the towers and castles that Lily normally constructed with her blocks. It looked a little more…organized than usual.

Lori shook her head. "I've literally got to go to bed. I'm seeing things." And with that, she quietly closed the door and left.

To anyone, it was just a jumble of blocks. But to its little builders, it was a lot more than that.

**THE END**


End file.
